I could actually run WordPress (having in mind “all” my requirements)
- with some commercial service out there with a full-service package for quite a little money,
- or somehow self-hosted.
I may not be familiar enough with all the features, that commercial services offer, but … – right now I am going for “self-hosted”.
What are my options then? I could run my self-hosted WordPress …
- with my Internet provider (not the one providing me with Internet connectivity, but the one providing me with IMAP+procmail, with web space, and with Linux shell account access),
- at home on a “general purpose” computer running 24×7,
- at home on a “feature-rich” NAS, also running 24×7, but most of the time in stand-by mode.
Option 1: That Internet provider does not have 24×7 support, but still they are quite reliable. They were established as a service provider for the German science and communication community. I have been using their services for a lot of years now, and I quite like them.
Option 2: it is rather unlikely I will ever manage to see them in stand-by mode.
Option 3 also seemed rather intriguing for a while, but …:
- they don’t let me use just whatever WordPress release, that I chose, and just fiddle with it, e.g. with the MultiSite feature;
- I also don’t want to get my NAS exploited from outside, because the blogs and their addresses get “a little well-known” and rather a target of interest for negative minds;
- last not least I rather like the idea, that most of the time my NASs run in stand-by mode with rather little power consumption and rather little wearout of the hard disks.